Alfonso Ralph Mendoza Manalo
Based in Toronto, Ontario, Alfonso is an openly gay, first-generation Filipino-Canadian who works as a Policy Advisor in the RCMP's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Unit and on the Race-based Data Collection Team. He is a fourth-year student at the University of Toronto, double majoring in Public Policy and Global Asia Studies and minoring in Critical Migration Studies.
- Are there any events in North American queer history that you would like people to know more about?
There are so many notable events in North American queer history, however, I would like to shed light on the LGBT Purge, which continues to affect the RCMP's interactions and relations with the 2SLGBTQI+ communities we serve today.
The LGBT Purge occurred after the Second World War and continued during the Cold War. Members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community, primarily homosexual men and women, were seen as threats to Canadian democracy and society because, in heteronormative Canada, their sexual orientation was not the usual. This led to increased policing and surveillance of homosexual and queer individuals. Many public servants were outed, demoted, fired or barred from working in certain departments. According to works published by Gary Kinsman, the RCMP played a pivotal role in monitoring homosexual public servants and overseeing their identification and arrest. This was mainly done by befriending them at popular queer meeting sites and asking them to identify other members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community, crosschecking answers gathered from interrogating suspected homosexual public servants, and by breaching the private lives of members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community using photography and other surveillance tools.
The RCMP recently acknowledged the role it played in the LGBT Purge and has committed to fulfilling the recommendations in the LGBT Purge Report. This highlights the possibility of reconciling the relationship that exists between Canadian law-enforcement agencies and members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community. It also provides a safer space for 2SLGBTQI+ public servants, regular members and civilian members like myself to contribute to Canada in the work we do.
Keeping this historical event in mind, I feel privileged to be working at a time when 2SLGBTQI+ individuals enjoy a degree of increased acceptance in the RCMP. I look forward to this new chapter in RCMP-2SLGBTQI+ relations.
- How does intersectionality affect your lived experience as a member of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community?
As an openly gay, first-generation Filipino-Canadian, like many folks, I became conscious of who I was expected to be because of my cultural identity. I struggled to decide whether or not to comply with or challenge these expectations. For instance, as an Asian-Canadian, I am often expected to be agreeable, passive and soft-spoken. Combined with my sexual orientation, this expectation made it difficult for some people to see me as "masculine enough." Asian-Canadians are often rendered invisible in discourse and in media, and unfortunately, the 2SLGBTQI+ movement often overlooks us, too. Having been brought up to celebrate my Filipino-Canadian heritage, I had to seek alternative and non-Western cultural mediums, expressions and spaces in order to feel represented. However, I am proud to note that the work of those who came before me, such as Roland Sintos Coloma, Priyanka, and Mary-Woo Sims, has paved the way for intersectional identities and voices like mine to be increasingly celebrated. Thankfully, I do not see this stopping anytime soon.
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